Sermon on the Mount Location

Even among non-Christians, there is general consensus that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is the greatest moral discourse ever given.

Is there such consensus on the location of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount?

The domed Church of the Beatitudes (left in the photo) atop the hill rising out the Sea of Galilee/Lake of Gennesaret (far right) is claimed to be the location of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which is also called the Beatitudes. While that is possible (see below), this location has less evidence than those that support the location of Jesus' Tomb and Golgotha where Jesus was crucified.

What we do know from the Bible about the location of the Sermon on the Mount is that it was a mountain near the Lake of Gennesaret and Capernaum, the fishing town on the northern shore of the Lake of Gennesaret. Since a location northeast of Lake of Gennesaret is likely to have referenced Bethsaida, which is the fishing town near Capernaum but east of it, the location of the Sermon on the Mount is likely to have been northwest of the Lake of Gennesaret.

How were "great multitudes" (Matthew 4:25) able to hear Jesus' Sermon on the Mount?

Jesus gave his sermon long before the microphone and speakers were invented, so did He need to shout at the top His lungs?

The answer is no. The Lake of Gennesaret is shaped like a bowl and has strong winds that serve as a natural amplifier. A firm voice spoken downwind carries a fair distance. So when Jesus preached on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee at a crowd seated below Him, the wind is likely to have been blowing toward the Sea of Galilee. And when Jesus preached from a boat facing a crowd on the shore as below, the wind is likely to have been blowing in from the lake:

So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat (Luke 5:1-3).

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